A Fairy Encounter
by Allyson
Summary: Evil fairies descend onto Angel Investigations but who will defeat them Angel or Cordelia? S1


**Angel – A Fairy Encounter.**

**By Allyson.**

**Disclaimer** – I do not own anything to do with Angel and the only fairies I own are at the bottom of my garden.

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A fierce shaking ripped through the offices of Angel Investigations; crashing anything not bolted down to the floor. Cordelia looked up from where she'd been keying at the computer.

"Earthquake!" she heard Angel call out in warning from the other room.

Quickly standing up, she rounded the desk to join Angel in the safety of the doorway when she stopped. Something wasn't right. Looking down, she realized she was still wearing her pajamas. What on earth?

"Angel, what's going on?!" she shouted, as the shaking grew more violent and noisier.

Angel never replied. Instead, she watched as Doyle breezed into the office, oblivious to the disaster happening around them. She tried to call out a warning to him but no sound emerged. He made his way over to her, where she was trying her best to keep her balance. He took hold of her hand and she grabbed hold of it tightly.

"Don't worry, Princess," he reassured her, with a warm smile. "Everything's going to turn out just fine. I won't let anything hurt you."

In all the chaos around them, Cordelia could tell by the look in Doyle's eyes that he truly meant it. She was only vaguely aware that Angel was dancing strangely in a doorway with a fairy that looked oddly like Buffy Summers, as Doyle bent over to kiss her . . .

Cordelia woke up startled. She quickly looked down to make sure she wasn't wearing her pajamas before looking around at her surroundings. She was sat at the computer still in Angel's offices. Her coffee had gone cold telling her that she'd fallen asleep a lot longer than it felt. She also realized that she wasn't alone. Angel stood over her, looking down on her, quizzically.

"Cordelia? Are you okay?" he asked. "You just screamed in your sleep."

She sat back in her chair, rearranging any stray bits of hair. "Sorry," she apologized. "I must have fallen asleep because I had the most strangest dream. I think."

"You think?" Angel raised an eyebrow at her as she stood and walked passed him.

"It felt so real," she replied, getting herself a fresh cup of coffee. "Well except for the part where you were doing this weird dance thing and I was in the office wearing my pajamas."

"Me, dancing?" Angel looked confused.

"There was an earthquake while we were here and it was like total destruction kind of thing," continued Cordelia, ignoring Angel. "And then Doyle just walks into the office like nothing's wrong, saying that everything's going to be okay and he won't let anything harm me. I woke up just as he was going to -"

Cordelia's sentence was broken by the entrance of Doyle into the office.

"Cordelia, are you okay?" Doyle asked her, oblivious to the previous conversation. "You look tired."

"I'm fine, thanks," replied Cordelia, quickly, blushing as she remembered her dream. "I've just got to get something."

She quickly walked into Angel's office leaving Doyle to watch her retreat in confusion.

"What's the matter with Cordy?" he asked Angel.

Angel shrugged, still trying to figure it out himself. "She had a dream that spooked her a little," he replied.

"Oh, well, dreams can't hurt people," commented Doyle.

Angel decided it was probably best not to reply to that one – he could name a number of cases that had started with dreams and ended with corpses.

He glanced at the small clock on Cordelia's desk and looked back at Doyle. "You're in late, is something wrong?"

"I had a vision this morning," Doyle replied, frowning as he wandered aimlessly around the room. "It made even less sense than the others I usually get."

"What was it about?" asked Angel.

"Just a single focused image," replied Doyle. "Of a . . . well, I think it was a fairy or a pixie of some kind. She had a pair of scary evil eyes, I remember."

Angel made a soft sound of despair as he murmured, "I hate fairies and pixies."

Doyle shrugged, unconcerned. The vision was definitely strange but he didn't believe it would become true – the nether folk were a myth to his knowledge.

"I'll start researching," Angel said, out loud, as he made to go.

At first nothing felt wrong but then the floorboards beneath their feet began to vibrate. The walls began to shake and loose objects slowly teetered to the floor with loud crashes.

"Angel?" asked Cordelia, returning into the outer office. "What's going on?"

"Earthquake," he told her, quickly moving into the doorway.

"Oh my god," said Cordelia, in disbelief. "It's just like my dream."

"No time for that, Cor," Doyle said, frantically, as he grabbed her by the waist and joined Angel in the doorway.

Wedged between Angel and Doyle in the doorway Cordelia watched as the tremors continued. Grains of plaster began to drift down from the ceiling as cracks appeared. Doyle kept his arm around Cordelia so she wouldn't fall over, while Angel kept one strong hand on Doyle's shoulder to support him. As they waited it out, Cordelia hoped her apartment was still in one piece, Doyle concentrated on keeping Cordelia safe from the continuing wreckage, and Angel began to despair about the state of his office and apartment and on how long it would take to clean it all back up. He hoped no clients needed rescuing in the next couple of hours.

After what seemed like an eternity but couldn't have been more than a few minutes, Cordelia asked, out loud, "Is this ever going to stop? I can't stay standing in a doorway all day."

As if on cue, the shaking stopped and silence deafened them. Cautiously, Angel stepped forwards, his eyes swiftly surveying the damage.

"It's over," he told them. "We should be safe now."

"Good," replied Cordelia. "You can let go now, Doyle."

"Sorry," replied Doyle, embarrassed at being caught. Cordelia didn't notice.

He stepped out of her way. There was a creak and then a chunk of ceiling gave way, clipping Doyle on the back of his head. Angel's swift reflexes caught Doyle before he crumpled to the ground.

"Doyle!" exclaimed Cordelia, worried, as she rushed to Angel's side. "Are you okay?"

"There's no blood just a big lump," Angel told her, as he inspected Doyle's head. "He should be okay when he comes to."

"Let's get him . . ."

Cordelia's sentence trailed into nothing, causing Angel to look up at her in concern. And then he saw what was wrong. A dozen white lights were descending through the new crack in the ceiling, twirling with the plaster dust. Angel could just make out delicate tiny wings on each of them – fairies. Standing up, he left Cordelia to take care of Doyle while he faced their new visitors. The fairies circled him, pulling at his skin, hair and clothes.

"What do you want?" demanded Angel, trying to keep the teasing nether folk at bay.

"We came to see if the rumors were true," came a multitude of twinkling voices in unison. "A vampire with a soul killing and fighting his own kind. It is unheard of."

Angel fought back trying to yelp out loud in pain as one of the fairies pinched him too hard on the cheek, drawing blood.

"Fairies aren't usually renowned for joining in the gossip as I recall," Angel replied instead. "Why are you really here?"

The fairies didn't reply to his question. Instead one of the fairies broke formation and glided over to where Cordelia sat on the floor with Doyle's head in her lap. The fairy danced in the air above Doyle's head.

"We have come for the one in dream state," it said, sounding quiet on its own.

"No," protested Angel, realizing what the fairy meant. Ignoring the increasing scratches and tugging from the others, Angel stepped closer to his friends in an effort to protect them. "The legends only state that you can take a dying person's soul so that you can manipulate them to your own fiendish ways. You can't take Doyle – he's not dead; just unconscious."

"We can't wait that long," the single fairy told him, as she advanced towards Doyle's unconscious form. "He is unique. He is blessed with visions. We need him now."

"Hey, back off!" warned Cordelia, waving the fairy away. "You're not taking Doyle away from me so just fly back to wherever you and your friends came from."

The fairy snarled at Cordelia showing two rows of pointy sharp teeth to her. Surprised, Cordelia grabbed a folder from besides her and swatted the fairy before it could swoop in and bite her. She was right on target and the fairy became no more than a squelch mark on the floor near her feet.

The fairies screeched inhumanely in anger and began to swirl together around Cordelia. There was a bright flash of light and in the place of a dozen tiny fairies was one human sized fairy. Though she was still beautiful and enchanting, her eyes glowed red with evil anger.

"Cordelia, what have you done?" murmured Angel.

"Oops, sorry," apologized Cordelia, also amazed at the sight. "I didn't mean to kill it."

"No-one kills fairies and lives to tell the tale," the fairy boomed at her, all fragility gone now. "You will suffer for your sin, human."

"Angel!" shouted out Cordelia, as the fairy advanced on her. From where Cordelia sat on the floor she was defenseless to save herself.

Angel launched himself at the fairy, talking her to the ground and trying to get a hold of her hands. The fairy seethed in anger, cursing both Angel and Cordelia.

"Cordelia!" Angel shouted. "I need you to find something to trap this fairy with. Now, Cordelia – hurry!"

Cordelia shook herself out of her stunned paralysis and quickly got up to look for something to capture the fairy with. She looked around the office in desperation but couldn't find anything suitable. Then it hit her. She ran out of the room heading for the elevator down to Angel's apartment. It would be perfect.

"Cordelia!" shouted Angel, desperately. He was beginning to tire. The fairy was a lot stronger than what she originally appeared. "A little help would be good about now!"

"Coming!" called back Cordelia.

He heard her come back into the room, thudding something heavy onto the floor. There was a scuffling sound as she knocked something over and then she was there, standing next to him. Holding the business end of the old Hoover she'd persuaded him to buy second hand a couple of months before. Even with the thrashing fairy beneath him, Angel paused to look at her incredulously.

"You're kidding," he said.

"Trust me," responded Cordelia, with one of her looks. "It will work. Okay, look out."

She turned the Hoover on. At first nothing happened as it slowly whirred into life. The fairy laughed evilly at Cordelia and managed to shoot off a blue energy spark at her. Cordelia ducked out of the way.

"My hair!" she cried, hearing the sizzle of burnt frizzes and feeling a bit of her ponytail was a bit shorter than the rest. "Right that does it."

She aimed the nozzle straight at the fairy's face. The fairy's scream of pain and defeat came to a tragic end as she was sucked into the Hoover bag. Cordelia turned the machine off and then proceeded to stuff a wad of paper down the nozzle, just in case.

"Good thinking," thanked Angel, getting to his feet.

"No problem," smiled Cordelia, giving the Hoover one last pat. "You're changing the bag."

Angel looked at it uncertainly as the Hoover rocked slightly from side to side on it its wheels. "Thanks," he said, unenthusiastically.

There was a groan from behind them and Angel and Cordelia stepped through the wreckage to check on Doyle. Cordelia crouched beside him and found a pair of sparkling Irish blue eyes gazing up at her. She sighed in relief.

"Doyle, are you okay?" Angel asked, concerned.

"My head hurts," Doyle replied, gingerly touching the lump on the back of his head. He then took in Angel's scratched face and hands and Cordelia's frazzled hair. "What happened to you two?"

"Fairies came to collect your soul," Cordelia explained.

"My soul?" Doyle gave them a strange look. "Look, guys, I don't know how to tell you this but fairies don't actually exist."

Angel and Cordelia exchanged exasperated looks and turned to go, leaving Doyle sitting in the midst of the broken furniture with only a semi-alive vacuum cleaner to help him figure out what had happened.

The End.


End file.
